[Danny]

Robin, you didn't need to include scientists' names in that. I wouldn't have thought you were lying or anything... The problem is that scientists produce so many conflicting reports on cannabis, and are so often selective with the truth. As I have said, the tests they carry out have many possible areas of inaccuracy, which is why the scientists find so much totally contradictory evidence.

An example of where scientists are selective with the truth is found here: "In terms of life-time use, marijuana was reported to be the most common illicit drug used by a sample of 268 murderers incarcerated in New York State correctional facilities." On its own, this might suggest that marijuana causes criminal behaviour, but if you look at the wider picture, you see that the reason why so many felons smoke marijuana is that so many ordinary people smoke marijuana. Cannabis is the most popular illicit drug in all walks of life, so the percentage of criminals who smoke is no higher than the percentage of non-criminals who smoke.

Also, some things are worded so as to bend the truth a little: "Marijuana causes many mental disorders, including acute toxic psychosis, panic attacks, flashbacks, delusions, depersonalization, hallucinations, paranoia, depression and uncontrollable feelings of aggression." It has been proven that Cannabis does not cause any mental disorders of this sort. However, it has been shown to exacerbate these conditions, should they already exist, or bring them to the surface if they are latent. The simple swapping of the word "exacerbate" for "cause" changes the whole meaning of the sentence, but if somebody were to pick up on that, the author would doubtlessly be able to justify themselves by saying that they had meant the former.

"Three days or more after smoking marijuana, PET scans of chronic marijuana users show decreased metabolic activity in the brain, especially in the cerebellum, a part of the brain involved with motor coordination, learning, and memory.

This decreased brain activity helps explain persistent defects in mental function and the increased motor vehicle accidents observed in marijuana users. Marijuana impairs perception, judgment, thinking, memory, and learning. Memory defects may persist six weeks after last use."

~ I looked around on that New Scientist page that Abby showed us, and I found that recent studies have disproven most of this. This just goes to show how unreliable anything you read about cannabis can be, as scientists and researchers are continually contradicting things that had previously been assumed as fact by other scientists and researchers...